Acidalia Planitia, a region on Mars imaged by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) Camera on NASA's Reconnaissance Orbiter, is known to the public for reasons less than scientific. While the real region has been a location of interest as part of an objective to locate safe landing sites for future Mars missions, many may know of this site as it relates to the popular movie "The Martian:" this is the area where Ares 3 and its crew lands.

The HiRISE Camera's images are used not only for finding safe landing sites but to learn more about the topography of the Red Planet by creating stereo images and even helping to plan out safe paths for rovers currently on mission. [See more images by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter]

The Galileo spacecraft launched in October of 1989 with a mission to explore the Jupiter system. In August of 1993, using its CCD camera, the craft imaged asteroid 243 Ida from just over 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles). With this image, scientists discovered the first moon orbiting an asteroid. [Learn more about asteroids]

Charged particles from the Sun directed by Jupiter's magnetic field create majestic aurorae at the north pole of Jupiter in this image by the Hubble Space Telescope. Aurorae are caused when electrons, detached from their molecules upon hitting the atmosphere of a planet, are drawn back to those molecules with electric force. That electricity creates the colorful auroral glow. The Juno spacecraft is poised to get some amazing images of powerful aurorae with its arrival at the gas giant in early July. [Learn all about the Juno mission to Jupiter]

NASA's Juno spacecraft draws near to its target — the Jupiter system. From a distance of nearly 4 million miles using the JunoCam, the craft captured this color image of the system featuring Jupiter, its Great Red Spot and three of the Jovian moons — Ganymede, Io and Europa. [Learn more about Juno and its mission]

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station make a hobby of taking photos of our Blue Marble. ESA astronaut Tim Peake captured this rare image of an iceberg during his six-month mission during 2015-16. Leif Toudal from the Danish Meteorological Institute, with assistance from Europe’s Sentinel-1A radar satellite and NASA’s Aqua satellite, identified the iceberg as A56. The massive chunk of ice broke off the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf around the turn of the century and made its way across the Weddel Sea to the Atlantic over the last decade or so. [See more of ESA astronaut Tim Peake's photos from the ISS]

Long ago Albert Einstein predicted a gravitational lensing effect of light from one object by the mass of another object. In this image the mass of one, nearer galaxy, shown in blue, distorts the light from another more distant but aligned galaxy, shown in red. Also, an unknown dwarf planet, shown as a white dot on the left side, comes into focus because of the lensing effect as well. [Learn more about Einstein's Theory of Relativity]

About 13 times every 100 years, Mercury passes between Earth and the Sun. Planetary transits are rare events that offer a unique opportunity for astronomers to study how planets move in space. Here, Mercury is visible in the lower lefthand corner of the image. [More images of the Mercury Transit of 2016]

The smattering of stars across this image create galaxy UGC 4879, an irregular dwarf galaxy. This type of galaxy is smaller and more chaotic than the more common spiral and elliptical types of galaxies. UGC 4879 is extremely secluded, with its closest neighbor more then 2 million light-years away. Due to its unique location, the small galaxy offers astronomers a rare opportunity to study star formation outside the interactions of other galaxies. [50 Fabulous Deep-Space Nebula Photos]

The New Horizons spacecraft snapped this image of Pluto's dark side in July of 2015. The Sun is behind the dwarf planet, casting an eerie illumination, spotlighting Pluto's unexpected and yet breathtaking atmosphere. Pluto resides in the Kuiper belt at the edge of our solar system. [Learn more about the dwarf planet.]

Adding to the plethora of astronaut-taken photos from the International Space Station, ESA astronaut Tim Peake captured this image of Earth. Clear skies over Europe are surrounded above and below with clouds — bringing weather — moving in, offering opportunities for more stunning images of our Blue Marble. [See more images from the ISS.]

In 1784, William Herschel discovered NGC 4394. The pristine barred spiral galaxy resides roughly 55 million light-years away making its home in the Virgo Cluster inside the constellation Coma Berenices. The galaxy offers an ideal specimen of this type of galaxy with its brilliant arms spiraling out from the barred midline of the galaxy. Along the arms young blue stars, dark strands of cosmic dust and glowing sections of star nurseries are sprinkled. [More stunning galactic images.]

Two European Galileo satellites (the 13th and 14th of 26 total to be placed) were successfully launched today (May 24) atop a Europeanized Russian Soyuz rocket and released into space. The launch took place in French Guiana at Europe's Spaceport. [See more amazing rocket launches.]

Bringing to mind images of alien worlds, this photo actually brings to light how the Daya Bay antineutrino monitors near Hong Kong, China, operate. The project, started by energy departments of China and the U.S., consists of eight detectors situated under think rock, tracking antineutrinos released by six neighboring nuclear reactors. So far the program has yielded results that, if confirmed, could reveal a previously unknown neutrino as well as redefine what is understood about particle reactions. [Learn more about how to hunt antimatter.]

The Condor galaxy, known as NGC 6872, is an unusually long barred spiral galaxy. Experts believe prolonged interaction with its neighbor above, galaxy IC 4970, has morphed the large galaxy into this shape. Seen on the left arm are many blue star forming regions. [See more amazing galaxy images.]

This may look like a satellite image of one of Earth's oceans on a cloudy day, it is not of this world. Jezero Crater, seen here, may be the landing site of a future Mars' mission. The location contains sediments from at least three ancient rivers. The image reveals a river flowing from the east, complex evidence of erosion, as well as visible ancient bedrock with proof of faulting and folding. [Learn more about water on Mars.]

The vapor surrounding Pluto gleams brightly in an image snapped by the New Horizons Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC). Experts believe the halo is a high-altitude haze created by chemical reactions — instigated by the Sun — between nitrogen and methane. These reactions lead to tiny particles called tholins in the atmosphere. The New Horizons' team used software combining data from three images (blue, red and near-infrared) to reproduce what the view in space would look like. [See more images of Pluto and Its Moons.]

The Red Rectangle in the constellation Monoceros (the Unicorn) roughly 2,300 light-years away, also known as star HD 44179, is a unique illustration of a proto-planetary nebula. The image captured by the Hubble space telescope unveils that rather than a rectangle, the nebula is an X with dense dust filling out the "rectangle" shape. This star, similar to our sun, is nearing the end of its life thus spewing gas and other substances which will eventually create a planetary nebula. [More Hubble Images.]

In 2007, the Cassini spacecraft took a series of images of Saturn and its rings from a distance of roughly 1.6 million kilometers. By combining some of these images, false-colored in three bands of infrared light, the stunning picture was created. Rings A and C reflect the Sun's light while Ring B blocks it due to its thickness. The planet itself glows in red and green, in darkness and in light, respectively. [Learn more about Cassini's mission.]

Briefly in March of 2016, a long coronal hole looked on Earth. These features emerge when the solar magnetic field reaches up and out into the cosmos. The effect — solar winds carrying solar material mix with Earth's magnetic field creating a geomagnetic storm. Results of this storm include satellite exposure to radiation (causing communications interference) as well as possible gorgeous auroral displays. [Learn more about the sun.]

Across the surface of Mars ferocious winds constantly work at shaping and reshaping the sand-covered landscape. These gales hew "yardangs" out of the terrain of the Red Planet, leaving a layer of powdery sand in the passages between the features. Due to the thin atmosphere, the ridges and dunes created by these winds cast stark shadows. [See more images of Mars.]

Around 60 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor, a jaw-dropping specimen of a spiral galaxy floats in space. With a severe pitch to the right, NGC 134, and the smaller NGC 131, has all the classic characteristics of the Milky Way — a glowing center, clumpy dust lanes and swirling spiral arms. NGC 134, which is larger than our galaxy, shows evidence of gravitational encounters with other galaxies. [Learn more about galaxies.]

The Curiosity rover on Mars returns more and more data to Earth revealing amazing facts about the red planet. Near the base of Mount Sharp, the rover has uncovered layers of ancient rock. Experts surmise that an ancient Martian lake left the layers over millions of years of cyclical evaporation and refilling. Whale Rock, seen here, shows evidence of cross-bedding as well — rock with angled layers created by waves of sand. [See more of Curiosity's Mars images.]

In this October 2014 image the hot plasma fibrils create an illusion of the tender petals of a rose. The active solar region 2177 sent many magnetically confined tubes of plasma stretching out from the Sun. [Learn more about the Sun.]

Eta Carinae is one of the brightest stars in the southern sky. Records show that around 150 years ago the star underwent some event that gave it this name. Experts believe this star is a good candidate to turn into a full blown supernova. This image, captured in 1996, shed new light on the star and the nebula around it. [See more Hubble images.]

New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Richmond and Norfolk make up this glittering image of the Northeast Corridor. The image taken from the ISS, shows a megalopolis that is home to nearly 20 percent of the United States' population. Two Russian cargo ships on the International Space Station can be seen. [See more images from the ISS.]

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured images of Pluto in blue, red and infrared with its Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera, and the combination of those created this spectacular image of the former planet. New Horizons spacecraft has returned many new findings about Pluto and its moons back to Earth. From dating Pluto's age to details about its moons; from atmospheric data to information about the climate and geologic history, New Horizons has revealed much about the dwarf planet. [Learn more about Pluto.]

A spiral galaxy scarcely 25 million light-years from Earth, The Whale Galaxy is similar in size to the Milky Way. Also known as NGC 4631, the galaxy has a brilliantly glowing elliptical sidekick as well as some other recently discovered neighbors that are dwarf galaxies. The galaxy is also surrounded by tidal star streams, fragments of a dwarf galaxy damaged by the gravitational effects of the Whale. [See more photos of galaxies across the universe.]

Astronomy is filled with references to Roman and Greek mythology and Mars is no different. The Red Planet, named for the Roman god of war, has two small moons named Phobos (Fear) and Deimos (Panic). Experts believe the two objects to be captured asteroids. The larger of the two — Phobos — orbits extremely close to Mars, a mere 5,800 kilometers (compare to Earth's Moon at 400,000 kilometers) above the surface. The grooves in the moon may indicate the gravitational draw from Mars, showing the first signs of Phobos' disintegration into a ring around Mars. [Learn more about Phobos.]

The predawn skies of December 7, 2015 were graced with a spectacular confluence of a crescent Moon, a shining Venus as well as the two-tailed Comet Catalina. Earth's two brightest cosmic beacons glow brightly in the night sky as the two tails of Comet Catalina shimmer near the bottom of the image. [View more images of comets.]

Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Neptune in 1989, and two hours before the robot spacecraft gathered the first images of the soft, elongated cirrus-type clouds over the planet. Neptune's atmosphere consists mainly of hydrogen and helium with small amounts of methane, which account for its bluish color. [See more photos of Neptune.]

During the New Moon in July of 2015 DSCOVR's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera snapped this truly epic view of Earth being crossed by its natural satellite from nearly a million miles away. The dark side of the moon has fewer characteristic landmarks than the side facing Earth — only the Sea of Moscow is notably dark on the upper lefthand side. [Learn more about the lunar transit.]

The sinister surface of glowing plasma that makes up the landscape of the Sun can be seen twisting and swirling in magnetic fields. The activity includes multiple dark sun spots and bright plage. At the eastern horizon an enormous solar prominence rises angrily from the surface, larger than the planets in our Solar System, and coiling back toward the star. [Learn more about solar activity.]

A century ago Albert Einstein predicted the phenomenon of gravitational lensing using his general theory of relativity. Today we have an example of the effect when we look at the Cheshire Cat galaxy group with the foreground galaxies lensing the background galaxies into the arcs "framing" the smiling face. The eyes of the face are created by members of the foreground grouping which are merging, displaying a bright purple hue in the X-ray glow. The image was created with data from the Chandra and Hubble space telescopes. [Read more about gravitational lensing.]

Comet 67p/Churyumov-Gerasimenko — Comet CG or Comet 67P for short — streaks through space at 135,000 km/h (38 km/s; 84,000 mph), orbiting around the Sun sometimes further than Mars and sometimes as close as Earth. The ESA's Rosetta spacecraft and its Philae lander gathered data and images on the comet nucleus and beamed it back to Earth. The jets seen materializing off Comet CG are the clearest images of the phenomenon to date and scientists are actively researching to understand how the tails, coma and jets come to be. [Learn more about Comet 67P.]

This region of Orion is oft overlooked by astronomers who are attracted to the contrasting brilliant and bright colors of the Orion Nebula's stellar nursery. Yet in this image of NGC 1977, NGC 1975 and NGC 1973 — which are reminiscent of a running man — the gentle blues, grays and purples of these reflection nebulae demand respect for their own, unique beauty. [View more interestingly shaped nebulae.]

Some of the most enormous stars with the highest temps known call the Tarantula Nebula home. In 2009 Hubble snapped images of the star-forming region known also as 30 Doradus showing clouds of cosmic gas and dust and specifically the star cluster R136. The clouds have been shaped by wild winds in combination with ultraviolet radiation from these hot cluster stars. [See more images of the Tarantula Nebula.]

In March 2015 the Volcán de Fuego (Volcano of Fire) in Guatemala roared to life, sending ash and lava into the night. The lights of Escuintla, a nearby town, and the beauty of the late night sky provide a peaceful though contradictory background to the glorious ferocity of the unexpected eruption. [See more spectacular night sky images.]

In early 2015, Comet Lovejoy zoomed toward the outer solar system with a stunning starry background. Highlights of the beautiful backdrop are the bright bluish Phi Persei near the bottom of the image as well as the Little Dumbbell Nebula just above the wispy tail of the comet. [Learn more about comets.]

In 2014, China's Chang'e 5-T1 made a trip around the Moon and captured this stunning image. These surfaces of the lunar rock, hidden from our sight here on Earth, emerge in muted grays especially compared to our colorful home. [Learn more about China's Moon missions.]

The Galileo spacecraft traveled around the Jovian system in the late 1990s, collecting data on Europa, Jupiter's frozen moon. After retouching the data using updated calibrations, scientists produced an image that represents what the moon may actually look like. The lengthy scores across the moon's surface seem to confirm data that under the icy crust a liquid ocean flows. This exciting news of liquid water in deep space raises questions of thriving life beyond Earth. [Learn more about Europa.]

Saturn's icy rings provide a stunning skyscape for the icy moon Enceladus. This unexpectedly active moon has active geysers, seen venting at the south pole opposite the crescent. The Cassini spacecraft has collected enough data that experts now believe the moon contains a global liquid ocean under its icy crust. [Learn more about Enceladus.]

Three-quarters of all galaxies fit into one of two structural categories: spiral or elliptical. Here we see a galaxy rebelling against the status quo; part of the other quarter of galaxies who refuse to be defined. This rare, messy yet stunning galaxy is in the constellation of Centarus, roughly 16 million light-years from Earth. Discovered in 1834, it was only when telescope lenses improved that scientists uncovered that it was not a planetary nebula. Experts believe the ultraluminous X-ray source coming from the galaxy could be a theoretical intermediate-mass black hole and are studying the star system for more clues. [See more photos from the Hubble Space Telescope. ]

What appear to be tiny oases nurturing a variety of trees in a vast pink desert are not, actually. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image in April of 2008 near Mars' North Pole. Experts believe the dark spots are wet patches of Martian sand that grew from melting carbon dioxide ice due to the spring Sun. In close up views of the image sand slides are evident from swirling clouds of dust. [See more photos from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. ]

Two galaxies in the constellation of Indus, the Indian, play an interstellar game of tug of war. Their draw toward each other is clear in the section of material taking their two dimensional discs into three-dimensional shapes. The image was released on the 18th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope. [See more images from the Hubble Space Telescope.]

Galaxy clusters are the largest formation in the cosmos maintained by gravity. The Pandora Cluster, made up of galaxies, hot gas and dark matter, sits in one of the most focused areas of filamentary 'cosmic web,' with three immense filaments connected to Galaxy Cluster Abell 2744 (the Pandora Cluster). Astronomers used the ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory to gather data on the structure. [Learn more about galaxy clusters.]

This fish-eye view of Saturn's moon Titan, captured by ESA's Huygens probe as it descended onto the rock a decade ago, represents the first landing performed in the outer Solar System. The probe landed in Titan's mud letting scientists know liquid was present on the planet. Further data from the probe's counterpart Cassini revealed seasonal ebbs and flows of rain and dryness. [Learn more about Saturn's moons.]

This pair of spiral galaxies near the The Triangle, a constellation in the northern sky, draw closer and closer to each other. The two galaxies, known as MRK 1034, show no signs of gravitational disturbances yet, but experts surmise they will steadily pull together, melding into a larger galaxy. [Learn more about stars and galaxies.]

A nebula by any other name — the Twin Jet Nebula, a fabulous cosmic butterfly with two lobes of jets, shooting gases at speeds more than a million kilometers per hour, was discovered by Rudolph Minkowski in 1947. Experts believe the unique shape may be created by a binary star system at its core, with both stars are in the throws of death. [Learn more about the Twin Jet Nebula.]

The Veil Nebula, in the constellation Cygnus, is one of the most massive and brilliant features in the x-ray sky. The supernova that created this spectacular cosmic scene exploded many thousands of years ago. This small section, captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, is in a region known as the Witch's Broom Nebula. [Learn more about Veil Nebula.]

The galactic group in this image was originally discovered in 1877 and thought to be a new nebulae. Further research, acceptance of the reality other galaxies in our Universe as well as modern technologies helped the renaming of the find as a quintet of galaxies. The data from ESA's Herschel and XMM-Newton space observatories combined with ground-based telescopes allowed for this beautiful and detailed image of the collection. [Read more about galaxies in our Universe.]